1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a golf putting practice device to be used as being attached to a part of the body of a golfer.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a putting practice device that indicates, on the ground or on a putter, the movement of the player's body, using a laser indicator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Putting practice devices that are publicly known enable a player to correct the addressing of a ball during a putting stroke, enable a player to learn a proper form by checking the positions of a ball and the player's eye level, or indicate a direction into which a ball should be putted using a laser pointer.
However, the known putting practice devices have problems as follows:
(a) The player is able to practice and team some parts of the motion by looking at only the result of a stroke motion during a putting stroke. The player, however, is not able to judge and learn if the motion of the whole body is good or bad.
(b) The player is not able to analyze the causes of a bad putting stroke (a bad motion).
(c) Because the putting practice device restrains or constrains the player's body or arms, the player is not able to make a stroke as naturally as he/she would on an actual green.
(d) Portability of the putting practice devices is low, and it is inconvenient to use the device on a practice green before an actual golf game starts.
(e) It is difficult for the player to attain an accurate sense of distance.
(f) The player is not able to practice strokes unless he/she has a putter and a ball with him/her.
As an example, JP-A-9-154995 (1997) proposes a golf practice target pointing device which irradiates a laser beam onto a golf ball from the side of a player's head while the player practices his/her swings and putting strokes and by which the optical axis can be adjusted easily so that the player is able to try to keep his/her head, which is the rotation axis in a swing, from swaying.
According to the method disclosed in JP-A-9-154995 (1997), it is possible to check to see if the rotation axis of a swing is kept in the same position; however, a player is not able to check to see if his/her arms, elbows, and wrists maintain the same form during a shoulder putting stroke, which that the form of the wrists, the arms, and the elbows is fixed. Accordingly, with this method, the player is not able to learn a pendulum-like stoke in a perfect manner. Also, according to this method, the player is not able to check the direction of his/her stroke and to learn a proper stroke.